otiswrath

Not OP but I was a Wildland Firefighter for USFS all over the country a number of years ago. They had a research team fit us up with small air pumps that drew a sample throughout our day, typically on Rx burns.

Long story short, they never shared the actual finding with us but speaking with the researchers it wasn't good. It wasn't even the wood smoke that was the big issue but all the shit that it would carry, heavy metals from exhaust this would settle on vegetation and would become aerosolized when we burned for example.

Frankly the way I saw it was that we are already carrying 40 pounds of gear in some of the hottest weather. It isn't like anyone is going to start trucking an SCBA with them 5 miles into the backcountry and the idea of wearing a respirator in such high temps seems dangerous.

I am not entirely sure of what ever happened to the research project but I got the impression that they learned enough to know that they didn't want to learn anymore to avoid any direct liability.

What is your favorite memory of your internship?

You are issued tons of PPE, all the gloves, eye pro, and hard hats your could wear but we were never issued masks but I had seen them in catalogs. I never saw one in use on a fire.

I doubt they would have been widely used even if they had been issued. A) It is hot as hell, sometimes literally, and you are in pants and long sleeves, your face is the only thing that can uncovered. B) I don't know if I would call it machismo or just plain fatalism but when you are doing a job that death is pretty much always around every corner the idea that you may get sick from something 15 years later just doesn't really matter.

Oh man. I can totally hear that in his raspy voice. I miss Bernie Mac, RIP Big Man.

People who are wrongly incarcerated should receive $100k for every year they spent inside. It is so fucked up that the government can claim sovereign immunity.